Written by JOBBER
You’re ready to grow your team and start hiring cleaners—but how and where do you find them? To get the answers, watch Katie Pearse’s video about her hiring experience, then keep reading!
1. Identify your ideal employee
First, figure out what type of people would do well in your business. College students? Parents re-entering the workforce after staying home with their kids? Professionals looking for part-time evening hours?
Whatever your ideal employee might be, make sure their lifestyle and job needs match up with the role you’re hiring for. This will give you a much better chance of finding the right fit for the job.
For example, maybe you’re looking for someone to handle midday cleaning. Your ideal cleaner could be a stay-at-home parent who only has a few hours to work while the kids are at school.
Pro Tip: Already have a team of cleaners but looking to hire more? Get more people just like your current workers with an employee referral program.
2. Write a job description and posting
Job descriptions are an internal list of employee tasks and responsibilities. This sets expectations for your employee and helps you evaluate their performance.
When you’re writing a house cleaner job description, you’ll need to answer questions like:
- Will the employee schedule new jobs, create quotes, or send invoices?
- Will they interact with customers, whether in person or by text or email?
- Do you need them to work specific days or hours?
- How many jobs will they need to complete each day?
- What cleaning duties will they be responsible for?
Next, create a job posting that you can share online to market the job to potential applicants. It builds on the responsibilities laid out in your job description and should also include:
- Company overview
- Position summary
- Personality characteristics
- Job requirements (phone, driver’s license, their own car, previous physical labor or cleaning experience, clean criminal record)
- Hours (full-time, part-time, days, times)
- Compensation (wages, benefits, vacation, incentive, perks)
- Additional information candidates should know (background check, drug testing)
- A request for at least two references
- How they can apply (email, web form, through the posting)
Pro Tip: Make your job posting sound like the people you want to hire. For example, if you want your staff to be friendly and professional, make your posting friendly and professional, too.
3. Advertise the job
How do you market to cleaners? Simple—you already know what type of person you’re looking for, so find the places where they spend time. Then you just need to create a message that attracts and connects with them.
Here’s how to reach and where to find employees for your cleaning business:
- A Careers page on your website (ideally with a job form for applicants to fill out!)
- Job boards like Indeed, Craigslist, Kijiji, Monster, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter
- Social media, including job and interest groups for your community
- Branded flyers and signs advertising the job
- Approaching hard workers at large businesses and inviting them to contact you for a job
- Referrals and recommendations from your clients, other employees, friends, and family
- Applicants who previously applied for a different position
- Past employees you want to hire again (or who might know someone worth hiring)
- Job fairs and career days
- Professional recruiters
Share your job posting on these platforms, and don’t be afraid to put a little budget behind your efforts. After all, you’re paying to market to clients—you should be doing the same to attract cleaners.
You can try several platforms to see what works for your business.
4. Interview candidates
As you start to receive and sort through applications, start making a shortlist of candidates you’d like to meet with.
These are the qualities that Katie and her partner looked for in their applicants when they first started hiring:
- Experience: You can lose time and money training people who are new to cleaning and might quit after a few months, according to Katie. You may need to hire people without experience, but try to look for those who do—especially if they want to make a career out of it. They already know how to do the job and understand how hard it is!
- Independence: Look for applicants who show they’re independent, motivated, and able to work without a supervisor—but can still work as part of a team. “You need people who like to work on their own, because you are working alone most of the time,” says Katie. “You might have a partner, but you’re not working side by side.”
- Friendliness: Your cleaners are part of a team, so they should get along well with others. They’ll often communicate with clients on your behalf, too, so they should be friendly and professional. In many ways, your cleaners are the face of your company, so they need to make a good impression and represent your brand appropriately.
- Commitment: Your employees need to show up every day, no ifs, ands, or buts. “You have to be committed to serving your clientele,” says Katie. “If you don’t show up, nobody else can step in. I had staff with such high commitment that they would be upset if they got sick. They felt bad that their clients weren’t going to get their houses cleaned.”
When you have your shortlist, book an interview with each candidate, ask questions, and get to know them. This will tell you if they’re likely to be a valuable member of your team.
Pro Tip: You might find it useful to have group job interviews and auditions. This can cut down on no-shows and wasted time. You can also see how your candidates get along with each other and work together.
5. Hold paid auditions
Some cleaning companies hold paid on-the-job auditions. This involves taking candidates along with current employees to help tackle real cleaning jobs while they’re being closely supervised.
Here’s Katie’s experience with auditions:
I pay them for the audition but explain they have to pass the audition to become an employee.
- Katie Pearse Glisten Academy
I say, ‘The manager will tell you what to do; just do your best.’ You have to know how your cleaners clean. There’s no point going through the hiring process with someone if they can’t clean or don’t show potential to learn.
Pay closer attention to attitude than technique during the audition. Maybe a candidate takes longer to vacuum, but they’re paying attention to the details and are open to learning how to do better.
At the end of the audition, share constructive feedback so the candidate knows what they did well. You can pay them by check or e-transfer, regardless of whether or not you’re hiring them.
6. Hire the successful candidate
Depending on how interviews and auditions go, you may end up with one or more candidates who would do well on the job.
You’ll recognize a great employee right away, so trust your instincts. Make them an offer in writing, get their signature, and start filling out the paperwork for their first day.
If your candidates are only so-so, though, don’t hire one—you may end up firing them and finding yourself back where you started.
This article originally appeared at Jobber Academy.